Leadville 100 Race Report: Fish Hatchery to May Queen: Mile 76.5 – 85.5

Joe and I left the crew and headed down to road to Sugarloaf. I power-walked again. We were now a few minutes behind schedule, but I was not worried. Joe and I hit the road and were immediately passed by a runner holding onto his pacer. We ended up seeing them again and the runner continued to be dragged up (THIS IS CHEATING) Sugarloaf. BAD FORM! Your pacer can be a mule by carrying objects, but they cannot hold on or be pushed. BULLSHIT!

As Joe and I began to climb Sugarloaf, my IT bands decided to wage war against me on the uphills too. This was the first time this really happened. The ROAD (that #$%^*& road) must have trashed them all over the place. I should have done more clamshells. I had to teach my right leg how to move up hill. The sticks help some but every step my leg would buckle!!! I was laughing and nervous BUT this was not going to beat me. I willed my legs to work and in 2-3 minutes, I began to power walk up the huge mountain. Joe and I made awesome time catching 10’s of people including the two brothers that the pacer dragged the runner up the mountain. When Joe and I hit the 137th false peak, we started to descend. The uphill on Sugarloaf is awesome. My lungs were working well. I was drinking and continuing to eat and salt. As we headed down, my legs began to buckle again. In truth, I was happy to power walk but I really really wanted to run. Everything else on my body was working except for my knees (and the broken toe and blisters but this was table stakes).

After walking 17 miles down a 1-mile stretch from the base of Sugarloaf to the entrance of the Colorado trail, we began to descend. OUCH!!! I could not walk and began to pole vault down the trail. This was the most painful and difficult section of the course for me. From the time I started the race to now, the 1 mile Colorado trail grew to 9 miles, added 3 more bridges, and became much more rocky than I remembered. Joe was awesome to get me through there. We were passed by a few people and all I cared about was getting to May Queen by 4am. We made it there by 4:33am. I had less than 5 ½ hours to get to the red carpet. At the current pace and with my math inability, I was going to skip the aid station.